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"The Rounds"
Mekhong Kurt
March 14 2008 Visit The Listing Place to advertise and to look for goods and services. * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * Just a reminder you can sign-up for free to receive the BangkokAtoZ.com Updates (plain text) e-mail to always know when I add something new to the site or modify it in some important way. A great way to be sure YOU don't miss something of interest, and best of all -- it's absolutely FREE! * * * * * * * * * * Headlines Who Says It Can't Snow in Texas??? A Group of Genuinely Great Travel Sites TOT Introduces Discount International Prefix Currency Woes Continue for the Greenback
Bob's Bar
* * * * * * * * * * Who Says It Can't Snow in Texas??? I grew up on a small ranch a few miles northeast of Denton, Texas, the county seat, located about halfway between the Dallas-Fort Worth Metro and the southern state line of Oklahoma. Lots of folks think of Texas as as nothing but hot desert, but that's only partly true, geographically and in terms of weather. In any case, east Texas, roughly defined as the part to the east of Interstate 35, is the part I grew up in -- and it can get downright cold (try -13°F on for size, the temperature it dipped to on the ranch two consecutive nights in the early 1980's). And it has occasional snow. Thursday of last week it did just that, when up to 17.5cm/7in fell across the county. The main local paper invited readers to submit snapshots of the event, which isn't all that common, especially that much. (The most I ever saw growing up wasn't much more, about 20cm/8in.) "So," you quite reasonably ask, "why say anything here?" Well, first, if you click the link a bit further down, you'll be taken to a slide show of 14 photos the newspaper received from readers in Denton and elsewhere in the county. All nice, I especially like #'s 3 (an igloo -- reportedly with someone sleeping inside when the picture was taken!) and 11 (a snow bunny). Second, anyone familiar with what the front exterior of the Texas Lone Staar in Washington Square looks like will note the similarity between that and the appearance of the front of the building behind the people and snowman in # 9, giving that one photo a coincidental tie-in to the Square! Naturally, that's my Numero Uno Favorito! Third, though many readers here don't like snow and cold, many do like looking at snapshots of winter scenes, and these are nice, though I don't know any of the people who took the photos; the home angle is good enough for me. Take a look: "Winter Wonderland" Back to the top [Sunday, March 9, 2008] * * * * * * * * * * A Group of Genuinely Great Travel Sites A guy named Christopher Elliot has a well-deserved reputation as a top travel writer, and he has a number of related sites I want to pass along. It also merits mention he's the travel ombudsman for the National Geographic Traveler Magazine -- so well worth knowing about should you encounter a genuine problem that's related to travel services. A word about just what constitutes "a genuine problem." Though Elliot does get involved, sometimes, when a person has a grievance, he's also not at all shy about pointing out faults a complainant could have avoided. I spent nearly 20 hours over Monday and yesterday poring through his sites, and again and again I read in his replies such observations as "You could have shown up at the airport more than 20 minutes before departure to help yourself be sure you wouldn't miss your flight and lose your non-refundable ticket." But he's very even-handed, and listens to both sides when he does get involved. Often, an aggrieved traveler does achieve some degree of satisfaction due to Elliot's involvement. After all, people in any travel-related business likely know about him and his following on the Internet, and no businessman wants to get bad publicity. And let me giver fair warning: his sites are downright addictive! He publishes reader's stories and comments as well as making his own observations. Readers' comments are actively solicited (for publication) but are moderated. Or so his sites say, though given the downright offensive nature of a tiny minority of the posts, I wonder just how strict the moderators are! Another heads-up is to be aware that some contributors to the readers comments just can't seem to help themselves and go wildly off into, at best, tenuously related areas. In short, they have a gripe and will take the slightest opportunity to run their mouths. So, be ready to do some high-speed skimming! ;-) (You'll be glad you didn't just leave the site.) And with no further ado, here are his sites: By the way, in reading one particular webpage I saw a mention of an outfit that sells a couple of handy gadgets, especially for frequent flyers. One is a combination luggage tag-small bag so you can place metal items in the bag to check your carry-on stuff through security, reducing the time you spend retrieving your at the other end and lessening the chances of any of your items being lost. (More about this in just a minute.) The second is a pair of small devices that attach to your pull-down tray that keep the passenger in front of you from pushing the seat so far back you can't move. You can see those items at: Regarding the combination luggage-tag/bag, while it's nice, it's not completely necessary. For years I've used a small plastic bag -- you know, the sort you get when you buy a few small items in a convenience store -- or a cloth bag. For instance, some years back I bought a half-liter bottle of whiskey -- most because it came in a soft, lovely velvety bag that was a nice dark blue. The clincher was it had a heavy draw string at the top that *stayed* drawn tight, and I used that endlessly until I literally wore it out. (Wish I could find another one!) Heck, you could use an athletic sock, though you might get some weird looks. ;-) Finally, let me point you to a site I learned about on one of Elliot's sites. Using it, you can find out the likelihood of your flight departing or arriving on time -- handy when trying, say, to arrange for someone to pick you up at your destination. It's important to note this is NOT a real-time status site; it deals in probabilities. With that caveat, hop over to http://www.delaycast.com/ next time you're about to board a flight. Back to the top [Wednesday, March 12, 2008] * * * * * * * * * * TOT Introduces Discount International Prefix Thumbed through a newspaper yesterday and saw an ad from the TOT (Telephone Organization of Thailand, the government-owned phone company) announcing the introduction of a new prefix for callers to use when dialing numbers in certain destinations. While the ad touted 14 destinations you can now call for a flat THB5.00/minute, four of those destinations are U.S. states or territories. Here's the list:
The ad also says this prefix can be used to dial more than 150 other destinations, the implication being you can do so at lower rates than previously offered, the rate depending on the destination. AIS subscribers can call the above list minus Japan and Taiwan. Here's the drill how to use the prefix: Dial 08 + Country Code + Area/City Code + Telephone Number For example, to dial a number in the U.S. or Canada, you dial this: 08 + 1 + 940 + 123-4576 You can call the TOT Contact Center on 1100 for further information. Though the ad didn't say, I guess TOT must be catching up and likely is using Internet calling to make these rates possible. Back to the top [Thursday, March 13, 2008] * * * * * * * * * * Currency Woes Continue for the Greenback The benchmark U.S. dollar continues to lose value against other currencies -- including the Thai baht -- as more and more indicators point towards a gloomy economic picture for the largest economy in the world. Yesterday the greenback sank to about 101 yen, to give one major example. Relative to the Thai baht, the Thai Visa Onshore Baht Exchange Rates page is showing THB31.5706/US$1.00 at the moment, i.e., 11:38 A.M.; the page uses onshore mid-market rates and is updated hourly. For comparison, I checked a site that posts offshore rates. It's showing THB31.4340/US$1.00. At one point the spread was 2-3 baht, but that's obviously narrowed. If you're coming here from abroad and will be changing U.S. dollars for Thai baht, be aware you get more here than you do outside the country , as the onshore rate is still above the offshore one, though the gap is narrowing. I don't know if what I'm about to write is true in the case of every offshore bank, but in the case of my own bank in the U.S., when I use my ATM card I get the local bank's rate for the money I withdraw from my U.S. bank account. The rate varies a few satang, depending which bank's ATM machine I use, but that's normal, and in the amounts I typically deal, makes no material difference. The weakening dollar has had a significant positive impact on outbound tourism, with tourists from here visiting foreign destinations up up significantly in January, both month-on-month and year-on-year. There's a downside to that, of course: some of those tourists with their new-found purchasing power might have taken domestic vacations if the baht weren't as strong as it is. Tough luck for operators of tourism-related businesses in the Kingdom. Unsurprisingly, rates such as hotel ones are quoted in baht, unlike in the deep, dark days when the baht started sinking (plummeting is more like it) -- when hotel rates were advertised in U.S. dollars, not Thai baht. Of course, now that the baht has gained substantially versus the dollar, it's to hotels' advantage to cite rates in the coin of the realm. There's now way to judge what will happen to exchange rates in the longer term. A Thai friend told me a day or two ago he has a friend in the central bank who privately advised him to start shifting his savings, which are in baht, to a basket of other currencies, as -- the bank source said, according to my friend -- the baht is getting set up for a major devaluation in under a year, not through any deliberate official moves but because it's supposedly way overvalued against a number of other currencies, not just the U.S. dollar. That the baht is in for a fall is the gut feeling of a lot of folks with whom I speak. And it's mine. There's nothing anyone has pointed out that explains the strength of the baht. If anything, macro events would seem to the non-specialist to suggest the baht would, at most, hold somewhat steady, back when it was around 40-42 baht to the buck. Property prices in both the commercial and residential sectors have soared right up into the stratosphere. And that's both for purchase and rent. Requirements for businesses, even domestic ones, present some barriers. A growing number of foreign investors are going elsewhere -- especially to Vietnam, which is, apparently, considerably more investor-friendly than many other countries in this part of the world are. The political tensions that have lasted nearly three years haven't helped, either. Yet the baht continues to gain strength. Or maybe the better way to consider it is the U.S. dollar continues to sink, right along with my home country's reputation plummet internationally. Heck, my neighbor -- a very apolitical person, normally -- told me the other day she hopes I don't ever meet someone who doesn't like the U.S. and is vocal about it, worries because she is smart enough to know that most Americans are just ordinary folks, like most Thais -- most whatever nationality -- are. Don't guess this will end in the short term; just yesterday one bar owner was telling me the only reason he hasn't raised drink prices to reflect his true costs is because the great majority of his business comes from regular customers, some of whom are on tight fixed incomes. But he added the pressure's mounting on him, and that when the next significant increase comes in his costs for buying booze comes, he'll have to up prices at least enough to catch him back up with keeping even -- that's right, on some drinks he's barely covering his costs. And I believe him. He hasn't bumped up prices in several years. He also told me a couple of things that surprise me. He said that in the case of a drink using local whiskey and soda or soda pop, the whiskey is the lesser expense, as prices for it have held reasonably steady, but prices for soda water and soda pop continue to mount. He also said domestically-brewed beer are reaching the level of imported ones, which is absolutely ridiculous. (It's spelled "g-r-e-e-d" on the part of the brewers.) And I know what he said about local beers is true; I've watched their prices go up way more than inflation, and if you have a foreign income -- meaning your bang for the buck has gone down -- then the prices are a double whammy. It doesn't help. of course, that the dollar continues to lose value in euro terms and gold prices -- as well as in oil prices, which closed above US$110 per barrel in New York yesterday. Gold continues to fluctuate around US$980/fine ounce; everyone expects it to go above US$1,000, and to do so sooner rather than later. (Boy oh boy, do I ever wish I had bought a bunch of the precious metal back when it was well under half that price!!! Sigh . . .) Back to the top [Thursday, March 13, 2008] * * * * * * * * * * Here it is:
Back to the top [Friday, March 14, 2008] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Enough for one go . . . Until next time -- Mekhong Kurt
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Copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 by Kurt T. Francis, except as noted otherwise. Materials by Christopher G. Moore, Dean Barrett, Richard K. Diran, Sonia Pressman Fuentes, and Hardy Stockmann are copyrighted © by those respective authors. All rights reserved. Please see the Copyright Notice for further information. Click here for our Privacy Statement Please direct all inquiries to MekhongKurt [at] BangkokAtoZ.com
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